Trampoline trajectories : a dialectical analysis of the correlation between the teaching of reading and the learner-academic performance in a South African rural primary school.
Loading...
Date
2015
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Using the Learning to Read methodology as an intervention, the study explores the phenomenon of the
teaching of reading in a poor rural South African primary school. It examines the centrality of reading
in the overall improvement of academic performance of learners across the curriculum. The study
foregrounds as its theoretical and conceptual framework Bernstein’s, Vygotsky’s and Halliday’s
theories that collectively inform the Learning to Read methodology to conceptualise the study,
generate data and theorise the research findings. The Mixed Methods approach as a research
methodology, Embedded Design as a research design, classroom observation, semi-structured
interviews and documentary evidence collectively are used to generate data. Research findings reveal
that there are fundamental assumptions that underpin teachers’ practices regarding the teaching of
reading. Such assumptions tend to impact negatively on the academic performance of learners and/or
produce positive outcomes for them. Thus, the attitudes, practices and perceptions (“understandings”)
of practitioners on reading instruction as a phenomenon reflected in the kind of academic
achievements of learners before, during and after the intervention are a major contribution to the field
of language education. Crucially, the study reveals that the teaching of reading contributes
significantly towards the improvement of learner academic performance when practiced across the
curriculum, particularly in settings of extreme disadvantage.
Description
Doctor of Philosophy in Education Studies. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood 2015.
Keywords
Reading (Elementary) -- South Africa -- Language experience approach., School children -- Books and reading -- South Africa., Motivation in education -- South Africa., Reading (Elementary) -- South Africa., Theses -- Education.